World's biggest Persian carpet

Iran is well known for its Persian carpets and attracts buyers all over the world. This carpet, although it can’t fly, is impressive nonetheless.

It is the world’s biggest carpet and was introduced by Dschalaleddin Bassam, the director of the national manufactory, in August last year. Its surface is 5,625 square metres and is handmade by 1,200 people from three different villages from the North-East of Iran. It took them one and a half years to put this 38 tons heavy carpet together. The carpet, of the size of a football ground, required 2,2 Billion knots until it was finished and costs 4,2 Million Euro. It will be used in a mosque in Abu Dhabi.
In the future it is planned to provide carpets of such dimensions for other Gulf States like Oman.


For the short article see here.

Five roses daily

I read something funny today. An Iranian woman sued her husband for 124,000 roses and won. In court she said that her husband was stingy during the whole period of their marriage of ten years. The judge ruled the husband had to provide for the 124,000 roses which would cost him about 132,000 Euro. As he doesn’t have so much money on the spot the husband has to give his wife five roses daily to be able to pay his debts. Additionally the husband’s flat, which has a value of 42,000 Euro, was confiscated as a security measure until he is debt-free again. Well, isn’t that love?!

For the short article see here.

Sigheh - Temporary marriages

Temporary marriages in Iran, also called Sigheh in Persian, are quite a controversial issue in the country.
As the name says it is temporary. This means the man and the woman can get married for an hour minimum and up to 100 years. The marriage is conducted in private by saying to each other that both are agreeing to the marriage. After the previous specified duration of the marriage is over both man and woman go their separate ways again without having to file for divorce.
This practice was meant for poor families and families of lower social status who would get a financial benefit out of such a marriage. It doesn’t require a big wedding ceremony which requires a lot of money and there will be someone who takes care financially of the girl or the woman.
The problem is that because this practice is written down in law, it is legal. The youths of Iran today misuse this practice to be able to fulfil their desires without being prosecuted. This “legal prostitution” as many criticise poses some other problems as well. What happens with children being born into temporary marriages?
According to Hossein Noei, a solicitor of Iranian and Islamic law in London, these children have the same heritage rights as children of permanent marriages. But how can they relate to their father? How can they identify themselves with their father when the family they see others have was never meant to last in the first place?

For more information on Sigheh see "Law of Desire - Temporary Marriage in Shi'i Iran" by Shahla Haeri.
The face-to-face interview with Hossein Noei was conducted in London in May 2008.

Marmoolak - The Lizard

“The Lizard” is an Iranian film from 2004. Directed by Kamal Tabrizi it tells the story of a thief who was caught climbing up the wall of the building he was going to break in, hence his nickname Marmoolak, lizard. He is played by highly regarded Iranian theatre actor Parviz Parastooi. Marmoolak was jailed but couldn’t bear it. He tried to commit suicide but ended up in the hospital of the prison. There he met a man, who was a mullah. When the clergy was in the shower, Marmoolak stole his clothes and was able to escape from prison by disguising as this mullah. From then on the film, which was meant as a comedy, turned to a satire of the current situation in Iran where mullahs are dominating daily life.
Disguised as a mullah Marmoolak, the thief, gets into various delicate situations from then on. When people ask him to lead the prayers he has no other choice than do so. He mumbles into his beard as he has no idea how to pray. He makes sexist jokes with a mother and her daughter when they stay in the same train compartment. He even wears sunglasses as former Iranian president Khatami at that time did.
One month after the film came to cinemas in Iran, and filled halls because of its scandalous nature, it was prohibited because the government felt it was offensive. The film received an award at the Iran International Film Festival.

Here is a clip of Marmoolak climbing up a wall still disguised as a mullah, to the surprise of everyone.

Good Words, Good Thoughts and Good Deeds

Zoroastrianism is the religion of the former Persian Empire before the Arabs invaded the country in 600 A.D. and brought with them Islam. It is one of the oldest monotheistic (the worship of one god only) religions in the world. It was founded about 3,500 years ago by the prophet Zoroaster or Zarathusti in Persian.
His ethics are “Good Words, Good Thoughts and Good Deeds”. The religion's holy book is called Avesta.
Fire plays a specific role in Zoroastrianism as it represents God’s, or Ahura Mazda’s, light or wisdom. At prayer times people are facing the sun, fire or other light that represents Ahura Mazda’s energy. Fire is seen as pure. In keeping the mind, body and environment pure Zoroastrians believe they can defeat Angra Mainyu, evil. In Fire temples, or Agiaries, a sacred fire is always burning representing the light of God and is never extinguished.
It is not possible for people of other faiths to convert to Zoroastrianism as you have to be born into the religion. This causes the community to shrink as they need to marry within their community to preserve the religion.
It is estimated that today there are less than 200,000 Zoroastrians in the world. Most of them now live in India. The city of Yazd, in the centre of Iran, is also the centre of Zoroastrianism in the country. Only 3,000 to 4,000 worshippers can be found there today.

To find out more about Zoroastrianism see here.

Note from a Tehrani friend

Iran has a lot of crude oil. But the country doesn’t have enough refineries to process this oil into petrol. Iran sells its crude oil to countries abroad where they have refineries to process crude oil. Iran thus buys petrol from these countries for a high price.
But the price of petrol sold in Iran is 1000 Rials/Litre (8 European cents). The government won’t be able to sell the petrol for the same price they purchase as people won’t be able to afford it.
The black market took advantage of this. Petrol trucks were filled up and the petrol was sold to neighbouring countries for a good price on cost of the government i.e. the tax payers. To prevent this, the government introduced the petrol cards.
Every car receives a petrol card. This card is limited to 100 litres of petrol per month. When you drive to the petrol stations you first insert your petrol card. Then you pay for the amount of petrol you received. Every time you refuel, the amount of petrol you bought will be subtracted from your card. If the 100 litres are used before the end of the month you won’t be able to refuel before the beginning of the following month.
Another version is that you receive a card for 600 litres/6 months. If you are not careful and use the 600 litres before the end of the six months period you have to wait for a long time before you receive your new card.
Four months ago the amount you received was raised by 20 litres. The government announced that from this year (the Iranian year starts on the 21. March, with the beginning of spring) people can get more petrol if the 120 litres aren’t sufficient. But they will then have to pay 4000 Rials (32 European cents) per litre.
Although the introduction of the petrol cards was to prevent smuggling, the general impression is that the government wants to prepare people for coming economical sanctions.

Israel's nuclear weapons programme in perspective to US-Iran relations

Since 1963 Israel neither denies nor confirms of having nuclear weapons. According to The Spiegel, a German polit magazine, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said during a visit in Germany in December 2006: “Iran, openly, explicitly and publicly threatens to wipe Israel off the map. Can you say that this is the same level, when they are aspiring to have nuclear weapons, as America, France, Israel, Russia?”
After his comments Olmert was criticised by his government for damaging “Israel's policy of ambiguity”.

According to the Associated Press Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, said in the same month, that “the Iranians are surrounded by powers with nuclear weapons - Pakistan to their east, the Russians to the north, the Israelis to the west and us in the Persian Gulf.”

Former US President Richard Nixon knew in 1969 that Israel had nuclear weapons. He admitted this, years later, in the Larry-King-Show. But he wasn’t going to reveal his sources. He and the new Prime Minister at the time Golda Meir met in September 1969 though the transcript of their talk is missing to this day. In the show he said: “I will say the Middle East in the 90s will be the area of the greatest opportunity for progress and the greatest opportunity for disaster. It is the prime candidate for nuclear war because the Israelis have nuclear weapons. I'm not going to tell you how I know, but I know that. [...] That is why it is vitally important that Israel make its deal now rather than waiting until later when its potential adversaries will have the power to threaten its existence.”

For the article in The Spiegel see here.

For the Associated Press article see here. (They charge for the article on its main site.)

For the transcript of Larry King Live Weekend - A Look Back at President Richard Nixon see here.

Persian Pride

Persepolis the old capital of the former Persian Empire is situated in the South of Iran. The ruins of the palace and the symbolism sculpted in it represent the character of the Persian people today as it did then.
One symbol that you can see in Persepolis is a lion with the head of a man, wings of an eagle and surrounded by flowers. The flowers state that the Persians are living in peace with others. But attack them and they will fight back with the power and the courage of a lion, the intelligence of an eagle and the logic of a man. That is the pride of the Persian people.

For a picture of this see here.

Hillary Clinton in full swing

The New York’s senator might become the United States’ next president. She voted in favour of a resolution that describes Iran’s Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization. This description was first published in The New York Times online on 14. August 2007. According to many foreign policy experts this might intensify the clash between the United States and Iran. Clinton explained her decision to agreeing to the bill by saying that she voted for it in order to apply greater diplomatic pressure on Iran.

In the presidential nomination race in the US, Clinton now is in full swing against Iran.

Reuters reported on 23. April 2008 that Clinton said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” the day before, that she wants the Iranians to know that if she was president, they will attack Iran (if it attacks Israel). As I read this comment in the Reuters article I was getting annoyed about the words Clinton used. What angered me the most was, why does she say “the Iranians” instead of “the Iranian government”?
When checking ABC’s website to watch the original footage of what the senator was saying she actually didn’t say “the Iranians”. She was saying: “If Iran were to obtain nuclear weapons […] and if Iran were to attack Israel with a nuclear weapon we would retaliate. And I want Iran to know […] that it is not in their interest to obtain nuclear weapons […] we will work to deter them from using such weapons […]."
It is not quite clear in my opinion whether she meant Iran, the government and by addressing them, the people behind that government or whether she meant Iran, the country and its people when she spoke these words. In the Reuters article it clearly came out as the second choice.

For the New York Times article see here.

For the Reuters article see here.

For Hillary Clinton on ABC's "Good Morning America." go to its website here and search for "Clinton Evades Race Card Question" to watch the video.

Challenging Iran's leader Ahmadinejad

There was a huge debate of whether or not to allow Mr. Ahmadinejad to speak at Columbia University in New York on 24 September 2007, including protests on the university’s campus against his attendance.

Lee Bollinger, the president of Columbia University felt immense pressure having invited Mr. Ahmadinejad. He defended his decision by saying: “I would like to invoke a major theme in the development of freedom of speech as a central value in our society. It is a critical premise of freedom of speech that we do not honor the dishonorable when we open the public forum to their voices. To hold otherwise would make vigorous debate impossible.”
The Iranian president's visit put Ahmadinejad in the public eye and gave him a platform to speak, not disregarding him and the views he is holding much to his right to freedom of speech.
It might have been an attempt by Bollinger, if not a very interesting confrontation, to expose Mr. Ahmadinejad to the public in order to help pressure him into changing the way he is leading his country or playing with the West. Nothing though it seems can provoke this man because he is not answering with violence to uncomfortable questions. He is not answering to uncomfortable questions with a direct answer either.
The West wants to negotiate with him in the aim to change the relationship of Iran and the West to progress. On the political level or social level, this requires different measures than the following. Bollinger started the debate by addressing Ahmadinejad with the following words: "Mr. President, you exhibit all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator. You are either brazenly provocative or astonishingly uneducated."
The West needs to understand the Iranian culture, Ahmadinejad’s culture to negotiate successfully. Some other kind of psychological warfare is needed than solely treating Ahmadinejad disrespectfully.

For the transcript of Ahmadinejad's visit at Columbia University see here.